UC and savings

[lifeisrubbish123]

Hello

My dad has just come into some money from my grandads will. My Nan is in a home now so the house is sold and my grandad who’s died half has been to probate and released.
he has earmarked money for me and my sister,
He has earmarked £15000 for me on the provision I am to book and pay for a Florida holiday which is £7000 and then I am allowed to use the other £8000 towards buying a new car as I have saved £6000 myself to go towards the car I need.

I recieve HRC and LRM pip, my son recieves HRC and LRM DLA. We need the car I buying for reliability, low mileage, good warranty. I did have a car on finance but that was wrote off and can’t refinance atm because I don’t work. Although I am training to find a job I can go Into.

I know I can have £6000 in savings, which I could move to my son’s account for now.

My question js if I recieved a cheque from ny dad for the £8000 for the car (and I get him to pay the holiday directly from his bank account.) and then I was to spend that within 2 weeks of it clearing as my car is nearly ready to would I be sanctioned, or having a reduction of UC for one month?

the car garage doesn’t rake card payments, it’s only bank transfer due to scams and chargebacks and my dad doesn’t do online banking and transfers

The money hasn't been left to her so will get away with it as long as it doesn't come through her bank account. Personally I would be asking dad to save some of it for her especially with all the changes coming soon to the benefits system rather than splashing out on new cars and luxury holidays but each to their own !

@WeirdlyObsessedByPremiumBonds
yes I’ll be over for 4 days.. I’ll just have to see if hell
then pay the holiday seperate to the cheque he writes me. As otherwise will they see it as deprivation of capital spending £7000 on a holiday?
the car is 14000. I have 6000 saved. £2500 of that though is a tribunal claim. Would they ask for the car details etc? Xx

Generally speaking I am very unsympathetic on threads involving people trying to hide savings to keep their UC.

But that’s not what’s happening here. If I’ve understood correctly, this isn’t OP’s inheritance. It’s not her money. If she’d left that bit out and just said “my dad wants to pay for a holiday for me, is that fine on UC?” I don’t think it would come across as trying to cheat the system.
I’d agree with you if it was “I’ve been left this money but am asking my dad to hold onto it and pay for a holiday without it going through my account” but that’s not the case.

@InterruptingRabbityes I perhaps worded badly. It’s my dad’s inheritance and he’s choosing to gift me and my sisters 15000 each.

he has specifically stated it’s to be spent for a holiday to Florida and towards the car. I haven’t had my UC review yet so this is why I am stressing about it all.

So you are given £15000 for a car and a holiday and UC, that is the taxpayer is still expected to cover your everyday expenses. If this is permissible it certainly shouldn’t be.

Gifts are allowed it’s not that OP is cheating the system it just has to be done a certain way.

My dad takes me shopping once a week and pays for the full shop, he also pays for things like my car repairs and dentist / optician etc and I’m on UC, it’s not really any different it’s separate as it’s all a gift.

Just make sure your dad books the holiday and buys the car etc himself for you and it won’t be an issue at all

Don't hide money in your kids accounts looks dodgy as hell just get your dad to pay for them things

But she hasn’t been given the money. It depends how you phrase it. I’m not on UC so had no need to hide anything, but my in-laws paid for our holiday last year for reasons I won’t bore you with. I don’t view that as “my in laws gave us £x”, I view it as “they paid for a holiday”. We never saw the actual money, it was never “our” money. We couldn’t have asked for the money instead of the holiday and spent it on something else (and it sounds like this is the case for OP).

So for a few days you will have £14,000 in your savings account- is that correct?

The simplest thing would be to just declare it to UC. You will have some money taken off your UC for that month (I think £5 per £250 over £6000, but don't quote me on that).

And make sure it doesn't go over £16,000!

Money in the DCs' savings accounts counts as part of your savings if you are able to access it at all.

The DWP do not have the right to look at your bank accounts- but of course they do have the right to suspend your benefits if you don't voluntarily show them!

The other thing to be aware of is council tax benefit, if you are claiming it. There is often a different savings threshold for this, and the DWP inform the council of your declared savings. So for a month you might have to pay full council tax.

(There was a poster on here the other day who got badly caught out by this).

It's £4.35 for every £250 above 6k and if the money is going out again in the same assessment period there would be no deduction. However it is the going in and then going out of large sums of money that the DWP can and likely will investigate. Best for the money to go nowhere near her account.

@crackofdoomno it will essentially be £21000.
i saved £6000 towards the car, my dad is gifting me the other £8000.

plus an additional £7000 gifted to me to book a holiday that he has told me to do.

i could essentially spend the £6000 savings i have on the holiday before he pays me the cheque for £15000 but i worry that will look like deprivation or capital xx

If the 2.5k you mentioned is PIP backpay that can be disregarded from savings anyway I think.

@Miley23work tribunal x

Oh, I thought he was going to pay the £7000 for the holiday directly?

Miley23 as far as I know, spending money on cars and holidays is fine. However, there must be a limit on that....I'm sure buying a brand new Lamborghini wouldn't wash!

If the worry is that the DWP might consider expenditure of this amount deprivation of assets, OP might be better off getting some specialist advice, probably from the CAB.

(Or explaining to her dad just how important it is that he learns to do bank transfers).

Your Dad like anyone else is only allowed to " gift" so much money per year - 3000 a year. However many people do so. As long as he lives for over 7 years then there shouldn't be a problem. Even if he lives less than 7 years how would they really know. This is not me saying this. It's my financial adviser as I have been giving money away. He needs to do online banking for the car to save you the hassle of having this money in your account.

Yes I'm not sure about what would be considered reasonable spending on these things. I doubt many people on UC would spend 7k on a holiday to Florida though. I think that would likely breach DOC rules. As people keep saying just avoid it ever going near op's bank account and it will be fine !

@crackofdoomi am trying to get him to do the £7000 seperate but he’s saying he would rather ir all is done in one cheque 🤦🏻‍♀️

I find that people who don't claim benefits (just assuming he isn't there, or at least not UC) just have no idea how tricky, complex and illogical the system can be- and how much trouble you can be in if you don't jump through their hoops.

If I had a pound for every person I'd met who was happy to slag off benefit claimants in the abstract but was absolutely thrown by the strictures I'm under- "But I didn't mean you of course! They're being completely unfair on you!" 🤦‍♀️- I'd be over my savings limit 😆.

You might just have to say to him "If it comes to that Dad I'd rather you didn't give me the money at all because it's going to be more trouble than it's worth",to bring him to his senses.

Why is he being so awkward?

To be honest, I don't think it will make any difference just for a few days. No one will know about it and it won't trigger anything because not enough interest will be accrued in that short time, and I'm pretty sure that's what UC go by. It's not deprivation of assets at all, it's just someone paying for something for you and that will leave a paper trail - money in from your dad, money out for the car and a receipt.
I once had more than £30K in my account for literally one day, perfectly legit, not dodgy but not for me to keep, and nothing happened.

Yes, £7000 on a holiday will be a deprivation of capital.

£14000 on a car might also be seen as deprivation of capital, it depends if a decision maker thinks it is reasonable to spend that much money on a car.

Don't use your kid's accounts and declare any large sums you receive. It might be they want to chack your bank accounts at one point in the future and then you could end up in trouble.

Then tell him it's impossible for you to accept any money, thank him for the offer and forget about it.

Those who have had nothing happen just haven't been caught yet. That's all.

I would be wary of buying a 14k car from a garage that doesn't accept credit cards. You are more protected buying on a card. Can you keep looking?